Side of beef: Are you getting a good deal?
Posted
Dec 09 2008, 12:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
We have a chest freezer in the basement (it came with the house when we bought it) and we try to use it in a cost-friendly way. So we're buying half a yearling heifer from a rancher.
But are we really getting a great deal, or is store-bought beef cheaper?
Mark Sisson says getting together with friends to buy a whole or side of beef is now known as "cowpooling." He says it makes sense if you really love beef (ours is grass-fed), have a place to store it, and like to buy locally. But how about the cost?
In a post at Mark Sisson's Daily Apple, he adds that "sometimes it is more expensive to cowpool than it is to purchase meat from your supermarket, especially if you're a whiz at clipping coupons and shopping the sale section."
Our partner blogger J.D. Roth broke down the arguments for and against buying a side of beef at Get Rich Slowly a couple years ago. In 2006, J.D. paid $3.61 a pound for his beef, including cutting and packaging, and compared that with prices at two local stores. "In this case, shopping at the supermarket would be more expensive, but not by much," he wrote. "If you watch for sales, supermarket beef will cost even less."
Want more information? Check out this .pdf file from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, and Jason Krause's post at Chow.
